It was my first year of highschool and also my first year going to public school, the orphanage I lived at only had enough government funding to send us to school once we were highschool age because the school we were sent to had dorms on campus. I was more than apprehensive about going to public school because of the stories I had heard in the orphanage about how difficult and rude the people were to those who were poor.
Unfortunately my worries were correct in this case, not immediately of course but I quickly grasped the gravity of my situation. First thing I had to do was go to the main office and get my info papers and key, afterwords I had to go to my classroom and introduce myself since most of the students have lived in the dorms since they were accepted. As I walked up the stairs on the second floor to go to the classroom I saw a teacher standing outside cleaning his glasses.
"Drai right?" The teacher asks as he notices me and puts his glasses on. "Yeah that's me." I say as I walk within arms length of the teacher. "I'm Mr. Bell it's nice to meet you Drai, I hope you have a great time in my class." He says smiling a very toothy smile. Mr. Bell had a very gangly but very tall look to him well over six feet, with his dark brown hair green eyes and big glasses that look beaten to hell with bends on the frames.
"You'll have to wait her for a minute while I warm up the crowd." He says giving me a thumbs up and ducking down to my eye level. "Listen kid it might be tough for you here with your background and all, but you aren't alone." He says in a soft voice and solemn smile. He notices my unchanging face and decides to go in and intro a new student to the class.
As I stand there outside the door hearing him say that the lot have a new student starting today I contemplate just leaving. "Come on in!" I hear Mr. Bell yell through the door. I open the door and walk up next to Mr. Bell and the gazes of my new classmates fell heavy on me like a weight.
"Introduce yourself please." Mr. Bell says waiting patiently. "Drai Denn nice to meet you all." I say in a monotone voice. "Any hobbies or interests you have that you'd like to share?" Says Mr. Bell. "Not really." I say disinterested. "Well alright, does anyone have a question for our new student?" Mr. Bell says loudly. The class stays quiet as they all stare at me whispering, which is about what I expected everyone that doesn't enter through the normal means is typically immediately gossiped about.
"Well go ahead and sit in the back by the window in the open seat next to Mathew." Mr. Bell says. I walk past everyone as they stare daggers at me, I sit and drop my book bag on the floor next to me between Mathew and I. "What's up new kid, you an orphan or rich kid?" He says semi laughing and loudly. "Mathew show some respect!" Mr. Bell screams. "I'm an orphan not that anyone could tell from our matching uniforms." I say looking forward blankly and unamused.
Everyone pauses and stares in shock, primarily I think because of my calm honest response. "Dude your pretty honest! I like that." Mathew says smiling and reaching over to pat my shoulder. I look at him blankly for a couple seconds as he just looks at me smiling. "No reason to lie." I say as I look away. "Well now that that's over please all of you show the proper respect regardless of someone's background." Says Mr. Bell. "We have to go to the opening ceremony and then to the dorm shuffle so pack your things and let's all head there." He says grabbing a few books and his bag as he walks to the door.
Everyone grabs their things and we head off. The opening ceremony was uneventful other than the few odd glances and whispers. The next thing we went to was the dorm shuffle which was basically a re-roll for the new students to hopefully get a chance at not being ostracized. The staff randomly decides the three other students you will bunk with, your student number is what's displayed on a giant projector to keep your privacy in case you want to change rooms. We were then guided to the dorms which were about three minutes walking from the auditorium. We were told in the orientation that after we move our things into our dorms we could call it a day considering some students had a lot of things with them.
I decided to just not go since it didn't matter who I bunked with I wasn't here to make friends, I walk towards the field area which was another three minutes or so from the dorms. It was kind of amazing and awe inspiring how massive the school grounds really were, it was about the size of a university with every accommodation you could ever need. I walked all the way over to the beautiful outdoor field but it was fenced in so I couldn't walk on the grass, I reluctantly look for some other place to relax.
I walk for a bit and notice a nice area that looked to be an outside garden with benches picnic tables and tons on open grass shrouded in shade by trees. I eye a nice spot to relax in the shade underneath a tree and start to take off my backpack as I hear rambunctious laughter coming from behind the nearest building which looked to be a maintenance shed.
"Cmon dude at least give her a chance." I hear a guy laughing saying. "Cmon bitch you know you can try harder than that." Another guy says sternly. I walk close enough to see the commotion, a group of three guys mostly the same height around six foot standing in front of a black haired girl in a skirt as the main guy holds a small book well over her head. I simply stare as the jeer and laugh as she awkwardly struggles to grab the book well over her head.
"Just say yes and I'll give it back." Says the main guy in an intimidating voice. "No I would never want to go on a date with someone like you." The girl says in a calm voice only caring about the book out of her reach. "Tsk tsk looks like you really don't want it back." Says the other guy. "Fuck you lookin at?!" The third guy says noticing my presence. They all look directly at me waiting for a response.
I can clearly see all their faces now which in hindsight don't really matter all that much, your typical bully type decent build unkempt uniform and all boastful. The girl I now know to be Momo stood there looking at me with a blank face waiting to see what I would say. "Nothing lookin for a spot to relax, didn't mean to interrupt." I say as I turn to leave.
"Hey can you give me a hand?" Momo says calmly. "Huh?" I say amazed. "Isn't that what most guys would do in this situation?" She says. "Yeah no sorry if you want the book that bad just lie." I say annoyed. "Hmm I didn't think of that, thanks." She says calm. Just how calm can she be in that situation? I was genuinely amazed that anyone being coerced buy these idiots would be so calm.
"Ok I'll go on the date, can I have it back?" She says turning and holding out her hand. "The fuck?! Do you think I'm stupid you prick?!" The main guy says yelling loudly and walking towards me a few steps. "Dude I don't even know you." I say very annoyed at this point. "The names Patrick asshole so watch your mouth!" He says walking towards me yelling as his goons walk to my sides.
"Can I have my book back?" Momo says calmly walking right next to Patrick slightly between the two of us. "Bitch shut up!" Patrick yells as he raises his hand in a backwards motion to backhand Momo. I immediately leap forward and grab Patrick's arm to keep him from striking her. "What the fuck bitch?!" He says confused I caught his whole momentum. I immediately release his arm and back off a step.
"Sorry but you shouldn't hit someone unless they hit you." I say apologetically. "Yeah I think you need to be taught a lesson on who makes the rules here." Patrick says tossing the book away and taking off his vest sweater. "Look I don't want to fight Patrick honestly." I say putting my hands at a surrender and backing away. "I know because I'm just gunna knock your dumbass out." He says pulling up his sleeves.
I watch as Momo walks past me and grabs her book. "Thanks new kid." She says as she picks up her book and sits on a nearby bench. "See what you did you even fucked up my chance of getting that sweet ass." Patrick says squaring his stance to fight. "Here I come!" He says instantly swing towards my face. I dodge backwards to avoid the blow but he immediately swings again and again, I avoid the punches quickly but I feel the power behind them and his stance is centered well, it's easy to see this isn't his first fight. He cocks up and raises his right leg to kick me I notice and drop my body and sweep his left leg. He falls hard on his side and I hear a loud exhale, I can tell it knocked the wind out of him. "Agh what the fuck are you idiots doing?! Get him!!" He yells at his goons angrily.
They look at each other confused for a second and both lunge to grab me, I can't let them pin me down so I grab the strap of my backpack and swing it at the goon to my right and it hits hard on his head with a thunk against the books inside. I release my bag and grab the second goons outstretched hands a kick him in the chest with the flat of my foot hard as I hold onto his hands where he can't get away. I hear him exhale hard and gasp as I release his hands and he falls gripping his chest. "Ahh fuck!" He moans in pain on the ground.
"Let's get him together!" Patrick yells to the guy still standing. They both square and advance towards me quickly I decide that taking them lightly isn't the best decision, I square up and use my speed the close the distance and hit the goon with a straight punch to his nose. I feel him fall back and see Patrick to my left cock back to punch, I drop my chest knee height and kick his knee outward and hear a loud pop. "Ahhh! Fuck! I think you broke my fuckin leg!" Patrick screams in pain gripping his knee and yelling tons of profanity at me.
I stand and look at the goon I nails with a punch as he grips his nose trying to stop the flowing blood. "I didn't want this but least you learned numbers aren't everything." I say walking over to my backpack picking it up and throwing it over my shoulder. "That was great! I've only seen things like that in anime!" Momo says yelling in excitement as she claps rapidly and standing up. "That wasn't for your entertainment!" I say sternly. "But still I got my book back and got to see something amazing! You were like a wild cat or something new kid!" She says with a huge smile staring right at me not breaking eye contact while walking up to me so close I could finally see how beautiful she was and why Patrick was so adamant.
"Jeez your something else." I say breaking eye contact. "Also the name isn't new kid!" I say annoyed. "Right! I remember now it was Ray! No, Jay? Hmm what was it again?" She says puzzled. "Ugh it's Drai ok?" I say annoyed. "Drai? Hmm that kinda fits!" She says excited again. "How so?" I say confused. "Cause Drai is only a letter off from Draig which was the word for dragon in Cambric." She says smiling. I simply stare at her amazed at the conversation we were having just after what happened as if she was unfazed by what occurred.
"Yoo there you are!" I hear Mathew yell as he walks over followed by a group of people. "Oh shit what happened here?" he says looking over the three guys curled up gripping their respective injuries. "Draig went primal on them to get my book back." Momo says to Mathew smiling. "Dude Draig you even impressed the anime queen?!" Mathew says amazed, I quickly realized from everyone's amazement and confusion that Momo was either avoided or her herself avoids others.
"But wait I thought your name was Drai?" Mathew says to me confused. "Draig fits him much better though don't you think?" Momo says excitedly before I can utter a word. "Your not wrong! I like it, so Draig you know I've gotta buy you lunch you wiping the floor with these dicks." Mathew says laughing and throwing his arm around my shoulder. "I won't say no to that right now." I say walking towards the school cafeteria leaving the garden. "And your paying for my desert for getting me into this Ms. Anime Queen." I say jeering at Momo. She ponders for a moment, "That's fair." She says walking up to match my speed. "But my name isn't anime queen, it's Momo." She says turning her nose up.
Patrick and his goons couldn't exactly tell on me and get me into trouble considering the embarrassment they'd face for losing a three v one, for basically the same reason I wasn't bothered by them again. Sadly the nickname Momo made for me stuck but I asked those who saw Patrick and his goons to keep quiet about it because I didn't want to get punished so the story of how I got the nickname wasn't very well know.